“We’d better go on now,” she presently urged. “We are lucky to find the ground under us fairly level,” she continued, as they moved forward again. “If it weren’t—Oh-h-h!”
As Ruth screamed, she shot violently forward. Blanche felt the hand that clutched her companion’s skirt jerking free of its hold. Clinging frantically to it, she brought her other hand into lightning play, and pulled Ruth so sharply backward as to lose her own footing and sit down hard on the floor of the passage, dragging her companion with her.
Several seconds passed before either found breath to speak. “You—saved—me—from—falling—into—something! I—don’t—know—what!” gasped Ruth. Raising herself from Blanche’s lap, she clumsily got to her feet, careful in spite of the jolt to still face the direction in which they had been going. “I was almost over when you jerked me back.”
“I’m—g-g-l-l-ad I—caught—y-o-u!” Blanche’s teeth were clicking with the terror of the narrowly averted calamity. Reaction setting in, she began to cry. “We—can’t—go—on!” she wailed. “We’ll have to go back. This—is—awful!”
“We will go back, Blanche,” soothed Ruth shakily. “Don’t cry. You’ve done something for me that I never can forget. Now get up, dear. As soon as you are on your feet, turn and face the other way. Tell me when you’ve done so, then I’ll turn and take hold of your skirt. You’ll have to lead going back, but it will be all right. We know it’s safe so we can go faster.”
Facing once more the direction in which the cave lay, the dejected adventurers plodded sadly back to their starting point. Returned to it at last, they dropped wearily to the floor. In each anguished mind brooded the same pertinent question, “How would it all end!”
CHAPTER XXI
A NIGHT OF SUSPENSE
It was half-past eleven o’clock when a long, echoing shout electrified the weary circle about the fire, bringing them instantly to their feet. Next they heard the steady dip, dip of a paddle, wielded with furious haste. As one voice, their answer swelled frantically loud and clear on the still night air.
“Blue Wolf at last!” Miss Drexal exclaimed with a fervent relief that was echoed in every heart. Leaving the circle, she dashed toward the edge of the lake, her charges at her heels. Through the gloom of the night, they could dimly distinguish the familiar, upright figure in the canoe. Here, indeed, was the blessed answer to more than one silent prayer that had ascended during that torturing vigil about the fire.